Pipe-joint.



J. R. TANNER & D. B. BANKS.

PIPE JOINT. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 28, 1910.

96 9,423. I Patented Sept. 6, 1910/ WITNESSES mvmroas mw a. M

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JULIUS R. TANNER, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, AND DANIEL B. BANKS, 0F BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

PIPE-JOINT.

. Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 6, 1910.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that we, JULIUs R. TANNER and DANIEL B. BANKS, citizens of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, respectively, have invented or discovered new and useful Improvements in Pipe- J oints, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to pipe joints, and has reference more particularly to that class of flexible joints having a mandrel or ring within the flared ends of two pipes, the said ends being clamped against the peri hery of the ring bymeans of two rings rawn together by bolts or otherwise, as shown on Figure l of the accompanying drawings. However, we do not limit our device to joints of any particular type.

It frequently happens where powerful electric currents are'used, as in railway, traction and electric'lighting services, the currents travel on the water and gas pipes, causing them to be corroded at the places where the electricity leaves the pipes. It is supposed that the electricity, as it leaves the pipes in the presence of water, causes its decomposition, whereupon the free oxygen attacks the iron of the pipes and forms iron-rust which eventually renders the attacked pipes worthless and even dangerous in certain instances. In many cases such pipes and mandrels as have been described herein-above are coated with some rust-protective insulating coating, as asphalt, forming too high a resistance for t e passage of electric currents be- I tween the connected pi e-ends.

It is the object of t e present invention to make such coated or insulated joints good electric conductors. We do this preferably by providing at least one of the elements with projections which cut through the insulatin coating, as shown in the accompanying rawings, in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of a pipejoint constructed in accordance with our invention; Fig. 2, an enlarged view of a portion of Fig. 1; and Fig, 3, an enlarged section of a portion of a pipe-end, showing the insulation-cutting ribs or teeth.

On the drawings, 1 re resents two pipes having their adjacent en s flared and fitting on the peripher of the ring or mandrel 2. It is essential, therefore, that the joints between the pipe-ends and the mandrel he fluid-tight. To cause the pipe-ends to fit the mandrel very. tightly, we provide the clamping rings 3 having their interior surfaces of such shape and size as to engage the outer surfaces of the pipe-ends. Bolts 4 are passed through the rings and in an obvious manner serve to draw the rings toward each other, causing them to wedge and clampthe flaring pipe-ends tightly between the mandrel and the rings.

Currents of electricity may enter and leave such insulated pipes as we have described at places where the insulating coat has been removed or is very thin, with the result that thepipes become corroded at the places where the current leaves, as has been ex lained. I

Ve regard it desirable that stray electric currents be made to pass through the metal of the pi e joints in order to reduce the number 0 possible places where the current will leave the pipe. While the required re sult may be secured in various Ways, we prefer to provide the inner surfaces of the flared pipe-ends with the annular knife-like ribs or teeth 6, which, under the clamprng action of the rings 3, cause the said ribs or teeth to cut through the coats 5 and (211- gage the body metal of the mandrel 3 which is a good conductor of electricity. In doing this the teeth will not only cut through the coat on the mandrel, but will also cut through the coat of insulation which covers the teeth and comes into direct contact with the body of the mandrel. In case the mandrel is not coated as described, the teeth will, as when used with the coated'mandrel, cut their way through the coat whichcovers them and directly engage the body of the mandrel. Preferably some of the coating between the teeth will be removed, exce t close tbp the p1 es e ns.

IVe cla im- 1. In a pipe-joint, means connecting adjacent pipe-ends, an insulating coat between the .said connecting means and the pipeends, and means on one of the arts of the joint adapted to pass through t c said coat and thereby electrically connect the pipeends.

2. In a pipe-joint, two pipes having flaring ends, an annular mandrel seated in the flaring ends of the pipe-ends, an insulating place where the flaring of t e coat between the mandrel and the pipe ends, and means for cutting through said coat, whereby the pipe-ends and the mandrel may be electrically connected.

3. In a pipe joint, two pipes having flaring ends rovided with cutting projections coated Wit insulation, an annular mandrel Within the flared pipe-ends, and means for causing the projections to cut through the January, 1910.

JULIUS R. TANNER. DANIEL B. BANKS. Witnesses:

F. N. BARBER, SUZANNE S. BEATTY. 

